Tetzaveh – Once Upon a Week

Read the transcript below, or watch a video of the teaching by Yehuda Bachana.

This Sabbath reading(Tetzaveh) is mostly dedicated to the description of the priestly garments, which includes the breastplate with the 12 precious stones that represent the 12 tribes of Israel. We read about the vest and the robe, about the turban and the belt, about the two special shoulder pieces, decorated with stones, bearing the names of the tribes.

The materials and colors used to make these garments are described to us: blue, scarlet and purple dye, gold and silk. Everything is done by the artist, who received his inspiration directly from God. It is written that God filled all those making these artifacts with the Spirit of wisdom, in order to fulfill his order to -

Reading about the construction of the Sanctuary, we see that all its artifacts, like the Golden Menorah, the priestly garments, the artistic work of the sanctuary, even the basin, the altar and all the materials, plated with gold, silver or bronze, were done with precision and symmetry, according to the divine instruction.

All these artifacts created glory and splendor, beauty and majesty; fitting for the House of God. We discover that beauty and esthetics are desirable and even important in serving God and in building the temple. People who went up to the temple felt a tremendous feeling of awe as they entered the gates!

What is the purpose of the priestly clothes? The priestly clothes are important for two main reasons: First, to make an impression and to create public respect; a closeness to God that requires separation between the holy and the common and the every-day life. That is why the priests are dressed in a special way. They have to appear exalted above the people and look special and similar to the king.

Special garments create scope and honor. The truth is, that in every religion, we can instantly recognize the leader; the head pastor, the head priest or the rabbi of the congregation, as they will be dressed in a special way. A good example is the robe of the Sephardic Chef Rabbi, dressed with splendor, to create respect of the community. So, the first reason is to uplift people’s attitude and create honor and respect.

The second reason, is to cause the priest or the leader himself to respect his own position and to take his duties seriously. When a representative of some entity such as a king, a priest or even a shift manager, wears his uniform well, he understands that he represents something bigger and thus he will treat his own position with respect. We are all familiar with the concept of “Shabbat clothes.” What does it mean? Does God care about what we wear? In a way, yes.

From our Torah Portion, we learn that when a person comes to the House of God, to be a part of a community, to stand before God and to pray, he has to look presentable. He has to be clean and to be dressed in a proper and respectful manner. The well-known saying, “clothes make the person” is true. When we dress properly, others will treat us accordingly, and we ourselves will treat the house of God with respect.

When we dress in a respectful manner for Shabbat, for our congregation or church, we show our respect for the occasion and for God. Clothing in the Bible is a world of its own. Often clothes represent a status, a mission or even a sin. Dressing often symbolize a change in someone’s position. For example, Joseph’s coat of many colors was a symbol of his status. When his brothers took his coat off, it was a sign of him losing his position and going through a very significant change in life.

Another example is when Elijah threw his coat upon Elisha. By doing this, he passed the prophetic calling and the mission to Elisha. In 1st Samuel chapter 18, Jonathan, the son of king Saul, took off his royal garments, his uniform, if you like, and gave them to David. It was a symbolic act of handing over the kingship to the future king, king David; and few chapters later Saul will openly admit it:

The New Testament also speaks about the beauty of garments and clothes in a way that gives us balance:

With these words, Yeshua dismisses our efforts to always look good and asks why are we so worried about what to wear? He is sending us to a field, to look at the flowers. God created this world as he saw fit. The lilies of the field, which do not knit, sew or design clothes and even the royal garments of kings, cannot compare to the beauty and glory of the flowers in nature.

We need to understand the balance of this saying. On one hand, Yeshua does not encourage us to constantly worry and care about what to wear. Today, in the age of social media, the importance of our appearance is greatly exaggerated. We are spending huge amounts of money, and we are making great efforts in order to get more responses and ‘likes’ from others.

But is it entirely useless and unnecessary? No. Our Torah portion teaches us that beauty and splendor have an important task, but our attitude toward clothes has to be balanced. It is also important to be dressed according to the occasion.

Yeshua continues and teaches us the parable of the great feast, which is found in Mathew 22. This parable speaks of a king who made a wedding feast for his son, and invited his people to come and join the celebrations. This parable of Yeshua speaks of the nation of Israel.

God invited our people into His Kingdom, but we refuse to listen to his voice and to do His will. Only a few people showed up to the King’s party. So he sent his servants to the streets of the city and invited more people to the feast; whoever wants to come is welcome to the kingdom of heaven.

Yeshua tells us, that at the end, many people came to the wedding, and the feast was full of guests. Passing through them, the King noticed a man, who was not dressed for the wedding, and this is what we read from verse 11 of Mathew 22:

This text is very hard to hear. What just happened? Why was the King so angry with the guy, who arrived to the wedding without the proper clothes? What do they symbolize?

In the Bible, clothes can be a symbol of person’s spiritual state, or his sins. For example, the prophet Zechariah, in chapter 3, sees the Hight Priest Joshua standing before the seat of judgement.

Garments can also mean salvation, as we see in the famous text of Isaiah:

Getting back to Yeshua’s parable of the wedding feast, and the fellow who came to the wedding without proper clothes. We understand that it means that his life-style and his actions were not fitting for the kingdom of heaven. The wedding garments symbolize our robe of righteousness, our garments of salvation. And, as we see it from the text in Zechariah, God himself provides us with these garments.

When Joshua, the Hight Priest, is standing before the heavenly trial, the angel of the Lord says to take off his old filthy clothes and to dress him into new and pure garments. Joshua, the High Priest, received here a second chance, but on one condition:

The Judging Angel cleans the old sins, but only on the condition that Joshua will continue to walk in a way that pleases God, and serve in God’s Temple honorably. God himself provides the wedding garments, but there is a condition – faith. We are commanded to serve one another and to serve God in faith and in the name of Yeshua the Messiah.

My understanding of the wedding feast parable is that the man without the wedding garments was the one who refused to take the second chance, and that is why the King threw him out of the party. And even more so, the king punished him and threw him into the darkness, far away from the light of God.

Because of our faith, we can also get the second chance; and it doesn’t matter how bad and how dirty our lives were before that. We see that at the judgement, Joshua is found guilty; his garments are filthy. Yeshua allows us to take off these filthy clothes, and he, Yeshua, will dress us in new and pure royal garments.

But it is our responsibility to do God’s will and live according to His words.And now I want to talk about “God’s will”, because who really knows what God’s will is?In order to understand “God’s will”, we need to go back to Zechariah, to chapter 7:

So, according to Zechariah, and not only to him, but also according to Isaiah and Jeremiah, God’s will is:

- To provide true justice.

- To show mercy and compassion to one another. Meaning, to invest in taking care of and in helping others.

- Do not oppress the weak and helpless, like the stranger, the helpless orphan or widow.

- Do not plot to do evil against each other - In other words: “Love your neighbor as yourself."

In the New Testament, Jacob (James), wrote in his epistle something very similar. He also tells us what the will of God is:

In general, God wishes for us to help each other, especially those less fortunate, who cannot help themselves, who depend on the mercy of others. And God forbid, if we abuse their innocence or their weakness. And we should stay away from the evil of this world, from the negative influence.

For conclusion, our Torah Portion speaks about the priestly garments and tabernacle ornaments:

And I am convinced that when we come to the house of God on Shabbat, we too must be dressed with dignity and honor. Thus, we will honor the people around us, and psychologically, the clothes will cause us to take our position in the house of God more seriously.